Morana

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Alejo was in the kitchen making some food. I sat on the couch in front of the TV, curled up under a blanket. In truth, I wasn't watching the TV at all. My mind was on Halloween, or rather on something I wanted to do because of it. Something I had decided I wanted to do that evening.

When the food was done, Alejo came in with a plate each. It was a simple pasta dish. I ate while considering how to ask for help with what I wanted. Because I also knew I didn't want to do it alone. Or I would have if I hadn't had Alejo in my life. But now I did, and it felt important to have his support for this.

"Your food will get cold before you finish if you keep going at that speed," Alejo said and brought my attention back to the present. I had been shifting the food around rather than eating it. I filled the fork, put the food in my mouth, and then chewed slowly, carefully, much more than needed.

"You want to tell me what you're thinking about?" Alejo said next.

The fact that he knew something was up and asked, not just asked what it was, but asked if I wanted to tell him, warmed me.

"The dress I wore," I said, my eyes were on the food. "I want to burn it."

I put another forkful of food into my mouth and chewed. I didn't swallow until he answered.

"You want me to be with you or not when you do it?"

He didn't assume. He asked. Wanted confirmation. That warmed me even more. "With."

"It should be possible to do in here. I'll just put a spell around the fire. Unless you have a specific place in mind?"

"Here is fine." I finally took my eyes off the plate to look at him. He had a small crease between his eyebrows, but it smoothed out as soon as I looked at him and a gentle smile took its place.

"Want to do it as soon as we finished eating?"

I nodded.

We pushed the furniture to the walls of the living room to make as much space as possible. Then Alejo placed a pot in the middle of the room before getting the dress and placing it there.

He held out a lighter to me, but I ended up just staring at it.

"Do you want to light it?" he asked.

I shook my head. I didn't know why. I wanted the dress to burn. But I also didn't want to get as close to it as I would need to be the one to light it.

"Want me to?" he asked next, and I nodded.

He walked over and bent down. I heard the clicking noise of the lighter. The sizzling of fire. The hissing of fabric burning.

Alejo stayed bent down for a moment and mumbled in the language I now knew was the language of most spells. When he was done, he stood back up and went to stand beside me.

The flames didn't reach out of the pot, but danced along the walls. It was surprisingly beautiful, and I felt peace as I watched the flames.

I reached my hand out to take Alejo's. His hand squeezed mine lightly before our fingers intertwined.

We stood in silence for a minute before I turned to him.

"Thank you. I know it's silly. But it's sort of like burning the memories away."

"It's not silly. Not at all. I don't really get it, but I sort of do. I know there are definitely things I would like to burn." He reached out and moved a few loose strands of hair to be behind my ear. His fingers lightly brushed my cheek as he did. That light touch made fire dance in my heart, but I ignored the emotion.

I opened my mouth to ask what he wanted to burn and if we should do it together. But at that moment, the fire flared up. Way up. Up to the ceiling. It became a pillar of orange and red that swirled around and reminded of the horizontal line of a sunrise.

It burned like that for a few solid seconds before we reacted.

"Fuck!" Alejo exclaimed before saying the same spell again. The fire retracted and next he threw a blanket over the pot. But the whole ordeal had already caused more issues.

Some fire had escaped the pot and small patches of the carpet burned. Small suns in the ocean blue. I ran to stomp them out and then to open the window. A lot of smoke had gathered.

The fire alarm for the whole building went off.

"Shit," Alejo swore next. Then he did the fastest magic I had ever seen him do. He mended the burns in the carpet. Killed the little amount of fire which was left in the pot. Blew all smoke out the window. Then he stowed the pot into one of the cupboards in the kitchen.

All in all, the apartment looked like nothing had happened.

"Okay, let's go out," he then shouted over the sound of the insistent, screeching beeping of the fire alarm.

All occupants in the apartment building flooded out, all looked at each other in confusion. The fire department came and spent a good long time in the house until they concluded that all was safe and that something had to be wrong with the fire alarm system.

Neither me nor Alejo had said a word to each other.

When we got back into the apartment, we sat down in unison on the couch. We stayed silent for a moment longer, then we burst out laughing.

"Fuck, the flames suddenly became much stronger. They broke my magic," Alejo said between his fits of laughter.

"Next time we burn something, we should probably do it outside," I added.

"Or at least not do it so close to the fire alarm."

I laughed some more before I leaned my head against Alejo's shoulder. It had far from gone as planned, but that made it even more perfect. The burning had taken away some of the shame and pain of the event, the fire alarm had made it possible for me to forget all about it.

"I can't remember the last time I laughed like this," I told him. His arm went around my shoulders and he hugged me to him.

"Me neither."